I tried to go to lululemon the other day as I was in need of some new workout shirts. I was in a bit of a time crunch as I had somewhere to be soon after, figured a quick detour to the store and I'd be on my way. Instead I approached a "road closed" sign and a million people milling about, apparently there was a Jazz Festival on the very street I wanted to be. Needless to say parking was a bitch, trying to cross the street was a bitch and to top it off the store did not have anything that I wanted. Boo! I did however enjoy the music as I walked along, that was really nice to listen to!

A few weeks later, I'm in a different city with my favorite bakery and one goal in mind. I'm determined to get the best brownies ever! I start to drive towards it when low and behold there's barricades all over the street! This time it was an old car show and a million people milling about. Parking thankfully was easy to come by AND the bakery had my favorite turtle brownies phew! I bought ohhhhh 9 of them (oink oink) and shared a few.....by a few I mean 3 (double oink)! No pictures sorry Berly :)

I also bought the cutest earrings as well (not at the bakery)! The crystals in the middle are from swarovski and they sparkle like crazy in the light, I just love them!

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The one event that I am very much looking forward to is the Vegetarian Food Fair! We stumbled upon it last year (much like the above two events) and I was in total heaven! We were surrounded by amazing food, amazing people and it just had such a great vibe! I'm excited to go again this year and try new foods and restaurants and to meet some fun veggie folk! The other good thing about this fair is that it does not block any streets or inconvenience anyone! Awww those considerate veggies!!

So I thought my ankle would be much better by now but sadly it's not where I'd like it to be. I apparently tore the tendons and have a bit of a ways to go as far as healing is concerned. I won't be able to play in the last volleyball tournament of the year so that is disappointing as it's such a fun day. On the bright side I won't come home beat up by the rocks nor burnt by the sun so my body is probably very happy!

I've been a bit of a concert whore lately. I saw Kings of Leon, Keane, Flock of Seagulls, Peter Murphy and Tears for Fears all within a few weeks of one another! I also have David Gray/Ray Lamontange coming up so I'm excited for that.








We had general admission on the floor for Kings of Leon which I was kinda meh about as GA is not always the best lest we forget Perfect Circle and the tallest man (no joke) on the face of the earth standing in front of us. I was pleasantly surprised for Kings of Leon though as we could see perfectly and even had the chance to get up nice and close maybe 3 "rows" back from the stage (check out our above photos). They sounded great live (which will be a theme for this email as all of the bands sounded fabulous live) and put on a very energetic show!

I was VERY surprised by the Keane show and the lack of people at the venue. There are four sections plus the lawn and only the first two sections were full with a few people trickling into the 300's. LD and I turned the corner to grab a drink and there was no line up. We were like WTF? Two days earlier we were at the same place and stood in line for a good 3o minutes for a cool beverage, same for the bathroom so this was a huge shock. Keane sounded amazing live and a lot of people really enjoyed the opener as well Robyn.....no idea who she is.....but she did a good job of getting the crowd going!


Flock of Seagulls were meh, it was a free show at a festival so I didn't waste any money on it which was good! Peter Murphy on the other hand was fantastic, loved him! Look at his cute jacket with a pink tuft at the back!!

He changed into this hoodie for the rain! Awww Peter was super entertaining and had this amazing presence AND he sang Bella Lagosi's Dead which made my night!!! He was playing another show that week which I would have loved to go to but I was busy that night, boo! I was super excited we got sooo close to him as well!

The crowd was also super entertaining, this guy put a cigarette out on his tongue, yes his tongue and danced away in his mesh shirt and leather (pleather?) pants! Oh my! He also twirled to the ground several times but I kept missing it on video so instead you get a little hip wiggle!

(This photo is not mine, I got it off of a twitter page but I was at this concert)

This weekend we drove a few hours away up to a trailer, went shopping (I bought some earrings and something else I've been wanting to try oh and brownies can't forget the brownies) and then LD and I made our way to yet another concert. This time it was Tears for Fears woot woot! Again, they sounded phenomenal live and put on a great show but the crowd was full of a bunch of downers. Seriously, barely anyone stood up for most of the show, the two sections beside us had a few rowdy people but that was it. At one point I was like fuck it, let's stand up! I tried to ask the guy behind me if it would bother him but he didn't pay any attention to me so up I went. I don't think I've ever been to a concert where the crowd sat down......even for the encore....people stood up to clap and get them back out on the stage and when they appeared, the people sat back down. HUH???? So while I would have normally danced my ass off for the whole show, it was cut back to about 4 songs so as to not upset the masses. Needless to say, they sounded great, sang a lot of songs I love and rocked out despite the boring crowd!

I'm sure most of you have read the story about the flight attendant gone AWOL by now! If you have not then please check it out here! It's soooo fucking hilarious I couldn't stop laughing when I read it! This guy is truly my hero, I mean come on now, he did what every single one of us has wanted to do at some time or another! There is only sooooo much rudeness one can take and he snapped with perfect reason! Err allegedly snapped with perfect reason.....

I don't usually lose my cool at work but did a little while ago at a very inappropriate time. Nothing like this bloke of course however I had a bright red face, raised voice and a few F-bombs flew out of my mouth but it was only to one person, not a hundred! They just seemed to roll off my tongue, BAM BAM BAM one after the other. There was nothing I could do about my verbal diarrhea at that point so I continued on as if nothing had happened. The other person stared at me for a moment, taken aback in disbelief I presume because I never act like that especially at work......

If I had been on that flight I would have surely clapped and perhaps even started a standing ovation for the clearly stressed out flight attendant! Maybe even a high five as he slid off the aircraft down the emergency chute! Good on him for making his feelings known, why do we have to be so polite to those that are rude because it's not socially acceptable to do so?!? Bullocks I say, yell as loud as you can today and tell everyone exactly how you feel!!!

PS he should charge the man, assault with a weapon I say....it's the States he'd totally win!

Okay so almost a week after I hurt my ankle I still could NOT see my ankle bone aka I still had a cankle and it still hurt. I had been debating about seeing a doctor just in case when ahhhhhhhhhh "such and such walk in clinic" was literally right in front of me. I went to grab a coffee before work on Thursday and as I turned into the parking lot there was a clinic right there in the same plaza! After a few "I'll be late today" calls I walked in. The doctor was an older gent with a lovely demeanor and after examining my bloated appendage he sent me on my way for some x rays. Now I don't live in the city where I work and while I know the roads well enough, there are a lot of one way streets and buildings can be a pain in the ass to try and find. One of the addresses stuck out at me as I used to work across the street from the place, perfect I know where I'm going!


Behind the building there's a parking attendant that requires a $9 deposit and the cost is $2 per half hour (place is right across from the hospital) I ask if this is 304 Victoria to which he replies yes but doesn't think there is an x-ray place in the building. I'm gone for literally 3 minutes, I leave him, walk into the building, find out the x-ray place has in fact been gone since October and I walk back out to him. He hands me $7........WTF??? I'm shocked that I did not say anything, I couldn't believe it! He charged me $2 to park for 3 minutes.........knowing full well the place I needed was gone cause there I was back sooo soon AND ummm hello obviously something must HURT if I'm getting an x-ray!! Ugh I was livid!


I found another place not too far from my work which was convenient as I was in a bit of a timecrunch. I had a volunteer coming in and a bunch of clients to see so wandering around the city in search of a bloody x-ray place was not an option. Of course I had to pay another $2 at a parking meter on the street and guess what......I was in the place for all of 15 minutes. There was no line up, no waiting, the place was like a ghost town which I suppose was good as I really needed to be on my way. I was probably the 1st patient the technician had had in who knows how long! There were no chairs in the waiting room, the equipment was super old and the wall was covered in floral wallpaper! She was also lovely though, quite chatty and sent me on my way in record time.

So a bouquet to the x-ray tech and a brick to the parking attendant!

I decided to treat myself on Friday after my ridiculous week! The weather was fabulous as it was quite warm and yet breezy which made it perfect absolutely perfect! I started the day out with a walk down by the beach which was lovely, the path wasn't too busy and the view was quite pretty and thus very relaxing! I sat for a while on the rocks in the water and just took a nice deep breath!

I left the beach and decided to explore the city a bit and ended up at this yummy smoothie place called Bula! I tried the Acai Energizer and damn was it good! It had Acai berries, strawberries, apples, lemons, fat free frozen yogurt and protein powder. It was sooo refreshing after the walk and I will definitely be going back! I'm making it my mission to find these Acai berries frozen in a store somewhere as I hear they are very very good for you!

Now for a treat that's not so good for your thighs but tastes great!! I heard about this yummy cupcake place that funny enough is right down the street from the smoothie place so I figured why not! I went for a walk earlier right pffffff!?!?! So smoothie in hand I went to check out the cupcakes and bought *gasp* three, yes three but I did not eat them all at once! I mean hello when am I going to go back during the day so I just HAD to try a chocolate/peanut butter, red velvet and the best one *drool* lemon with a squishy middle mmmmmm!!!

I went to a concert (will blog about that later), got to see the lovely Sly, went out for late night food and yada yada yada ended up on the floor with several Asian waiters helping me up and thus left the city with a very sore and very swollen ankle. The funny thing, I wasn't drunk just extremely clumsy I guess?? It's the left one, I have a bit of a cankle and my whole foot looks fat. Maybe the cupcakes made their way down there!!!! :)

This week has been testing my patience in more ways than one! In no particular order:

*I had the option to leave work early one day but had already told someone I would stay and wait for them to show up as they missed their earlier appointment and they really really needed to give me something. They never bothered to come at all and in the midst of my waiting for them a horrific lightning storm came along which I would have avoided had I left early. I have this bizarre fear of lightning and can't drive in it at all but in my defence this storm was BAD. I was now stuck at work alone, waiting for the storm to pass and had a 6:14 train to catch in another city. (FYI that storm killed someone who was hmmm struck by lightning so my fear isn't totally irrational).

*I made it to the train station however had not changed my clothes as I had planned to do as they were in my trunk during the storm. I decided instead to get into the LONG line up for tickets and wait for my friends. Over the loud speaker comes "due to a police investigation at such and such a line the trains will be delayed"..... great! I went back to my car to change, managed to get a stain on the front of my VERY white shirt and spilled my Advil ALL over the dirty wet parking lot. The train left an hour late and I never bothered to stop and grab dinner beforehand, nor change in a normal place or brush my teeth or do anything I had planned to do because of the jackass who put me behind in my plans. Next time someone misses an appointment fuck em, not my problem, you go to jail you go to jail *shrug*! (FYI I found out my client lied to me anyway and didn't in fact have what he really really needed to give me which made me furious)

*Warning this part is GROSS!!! I was watching a friends house and cats while she was away. I won't be around for garbage day and she barely had any so I figured I would toss it all into a shopping bag and bring it to work. She had one of those food buckets and it appeared to have some paper towels and a bun in it. I thought I would save her the bag and just dump the few items into the shopping/garbage bag. So I did and on the bottom of the food bag was a big HUGE pile of maggots, yes maggots! Ummm I can't even look at those things on TV they make me want to die and I have never seen them in person EVER!! I don't know how but I managed to get the whole bag in there without touching any, took it outside and luckily ran into a neighbour. I never said anything about the contents of the bag but I did ask her to take the garbage out next week as there was NOOOOOOOOO way in hell that bag was coming in my car. *BLEH*

I was scratching myself alllllll day long cause I felt itchy and gross!

I am hoping this weekend will be MUCH better!!! I have a concert on Friday and will be going out with my pals to drink this week away. I also hope to hunt down Ms. Sly as I know she's in town!! Kisses!!!

My camera started smoking on my last vacation so I decided it was time for a new one. Funny enough though in my new manual I read a section regarding "if your camera starts smoking when using the flash"! How odd......

Anyway I seem to be one of those people that's loyal to a brand. I asked around for advice regarding various point and shoot cameras and low and behold I bought another Canon. The last one held up famously and even fell into a raging fire without so much as a scratch or a burn mark! How durable :)

I love my new one though, it's super cute (pink...almost fuchsia really) and it's very tiny which I love! I wasn't in need of a big fancy camera so this one is perfect for me!

PP and I went to a fancy restaurant for Summerlicious which was delightful. I didn't get to use my new camera as whipping it out felt a bit gauche but we did snag photos of our food with my blackberry! Our waiter was hilarious and very friendly which was the opposite of what I was expecting. All of the reviews of this place said the waitstaff were snobby and the clientele even more so ........ pffff bullocks I say! Everyone was lovely, we even had a table right beside the piano and just our luck the musician was a chatty cathy! It did work to our advantage though as he played a bunch of PP's requests but he wouldn't stop talking to us. I didn't mind as he reminded me of Val Kilmer a la his Iceman days, PP however was like"WHY does this always happen to us???" Ha!

Appetizers:

Sea Scallop and Forrest Mushroom with Truffle Essence and Poached Egg


Roasted Onion and Tomato Soup with Cumin Cream

Dinner

Roasted Cauliflower Gratin with Mushroom and Sage Risotto

Dessert:

Chocolate Custard Cake with Toasted Meringue and Stewed Strawberries

I'm obsessed with this new website I found called Groupon. Basically you pick your city and every day you get a coupon emailed to you based on your location. The catcher is, you only get that deal if enough people sign up for it, they are able to offer great deals through group purchasing.

I just signed up recently and have yet to actually purchase anything however I took a peak back at their prior offers and some looked really good. They had an indoor climbing class for beginners and a months pass with rentals for $49 regularly $195. There's this yummy restaurant Utopia that I adore and they had a coupon where you pay $20 and get $40 worth of food! Nom nom nom......

They seem to offer a variety of services, I've seen mani's and pedis for cheapola, scuba lessons, yoga, the spa, recreational activities, the list goes on! Check it out and see if they have one in your area!! I think it's a great way to try new things AND for smaller price than you would normally pay. I mean I doubt I'd go out and take scuba lessons but I would most likely try a beginner class for 1/2 price. Why not right?!?!

Another busy weekend with gorgeous weather woot woot!

I was in an all day charity volleyball tournament again this past weekend. It was loads of fun but I got quite the burn and a few other injuries. How about some photos.......

This is the lovely burn I came home with! I actually wore sunscreen as I seem to be getting wiser in my old age AND I even remembered to reapply it. I suppose sitting in the sun for ohhhh 9 hours will burn you regardless.

This is my knee, I dove for the ball in our last game and sliced it open on I'm guessing a rock.....we played like 7 games and I had to go and hurt myself in the last 3 minutes of the tournament!

I bruise super easily and now have an entire forearm to prove it. They aren't showing up well in photos but trust me when I say my arm has 3 ginormous bruises and three lumps to go along with them. Ouch!

I also got an elbow to the head ... hard.... which gave me an instant stabbing pain in my noggin! Again, during the last game thankfully and not near the beginning of the games. It's still quite tender though awwww!

I look more like I was in an ultimate fighting match than a volleyball game Ha! I had a great time though and will be doing it all over again next month!

Things I'm into right now:

Mmmmm lemon in ice cold water! I had a craving for this mid summer and its become my drink of choice as of late. It's so bloody refreshing and lovely on a hot sunny day!

Come Dine With Me

I fucking love this British TV show! They take 4-5 strangers each of whom has to host and cook a three course meal for the other contestants all the while vying for a 1,000 pound prize. Well you can only imagine several strangers with several types of personalities getting together every evening over the course of a week. Favorite quote from a guest reading the menu "that sounds absolutely disgusting but it has rum in it so I'll give it a bash"! And another as she was scoring the host "Tonight has been horrendous, it has been something I have never come across in all of my years on this earth". Here's a short clip on Youtube of another episode that's funny!

Skull and Bones Ice Cube Tray

I was out shopping around at my favorite store downtown and came across this lovely tray! How much fun is this?!?! I was thinking of putting some food colouring into the water just to see how the coloured cubes stand out! You can see from the photo that it's hard to see the details in the two I popped out but whatever, they're still super cute!!!

Helios Heating Pad

Best invention ever!! I've always seen these things at kiosks in the States and I've always wanted to get one but never have....until now!!! You basically snap a small coin inside of the pad and voila it heats up to 130 degrees in seconds. The Helios Pad is perfect for my desk at work as my regular heating pad has a short cord and needless to say is a pain in my arse when I've hurt my back.

Day two in Pittsburgh started out with a lovely vegan/vegetarian brunch. We're not entirely sure which it was but it was certainly a meatless feast! Nom nom nom! It was a very unique setting, at the back of an antique store with various lamps, paintings and articles around the tables. They had a nice spread of salads, fruit, hummus, noodles as well you could pick one main entree off of the menu. I got a walnut/tofu "meatball" sandwich with sauce and "cheese" which was delicious!

They had this crazy bathroom with owls EVERYWHERE! I took a photo with my cell but have since switched phones and forgot to snag all of my photos beforehand. Of course the net is made for such things and I found the above two photos on google search!

After stuffing ourselves we drove the hour or so to Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater! It really was quite an amazing structure! He incorporated the natural environment into the home by building around the rock formations on the land, he made the hallways almost cave like and the bedrooms rather small but the balcony's quite large. He wanted the Kaufmanns to live within and be one with the nature surrounding them and thus built the home "on top of" the waterfall. His goal was to bring them out of the structure and right into nature as well as to bring nature into the home.

We weren't allowed to take photos inside of Fallingwater but as you can see from this photo the stairs lead from the water right up into the living room which was a very cool idea!

On our way home we decided to stop for some scoff but not just anywhere, Jennifer wanted an authentic in the middle of nowhere experience. As you can see from the above photo we got just that! The locals stared as we walked in and I desperately wanted to take a photo of a truck outside with sooooo much shit in it they could barely close the door! Our waitress was a young gal but absolutely wonderful, pleasant as can be and very attentive!

The food was yummy but I still don't understand their love for ranch dressing over there. I mean look at the size of the bottle on the table in comparison to the ketchup and glass of pop. It's bloody huge!!!

I love Pittsburgh!! Of course we got slightly lost .... but in the actual city which was a change as I once ended up in Rochester while trying to get to Ohio! We stopped at a sketchy gas station to ask for directions but the bulletproof glass and thousands of people in line did not make that an easy task. I gave up and asked a local, he was super friendly and sent us on our way. We stopped at a light and Jennifer was like "there's some man gesturing at you in the car beside us" so I rolled down my window, it was the friendly guy from the station. He wanted to make sure we were going the right way "keep going, follow the 28 alllll the way down"!!

On our first day we went to a lookout above the city which had a great view of the skyline! We went to the Andy Warhol Museum and yes we found the Furry Convention!!!! Seriously as we were driving to the Museum we saw a person dressed up as a fox or something, I squealed, snapped a photo and vowed to return to walk amongst them!!

I loved the Warhol Museum and other than his actual paintings, my favorite installation was "The Silver Clouds"!

It was a room full of helium balloons floating via fans, so we walked around them, had a "pillow fight" and for a moment I just laughed and laughed. It was refreshing and lovely to be right in the present moment, I just felt soooo light and very happy! Andy certainly had the right idea :)

After the museum our mission was to find the furries and find them we did. They were milling about EVERYWHERE and we sidled up to the bar where the convention was being held and had a drink. There was a pirate on one side of us a la Jack Sparrow and a man with a very lush tail on the other. K leaned over and whispered "I think the pirate is kind of cute" I agreed, Jennifer just shook her head. I desperately wanted a picture with one of them but felt a bit sheepish asking so Jennifer marched me over to a wolf to ensure a photo was taken. I then declared that I had a thing for the Lemur and got one with him/her? as well. I looked up "furries" after our peak into their world and I still don't get it. Not to be rude but almost everyone there (other than the pirate) looked beyond super geeky and other than "role playing" which we saw ( I was too shocked to even think about taking a video) I don't quite understand what they do at these conventions. Anyone....anyone????

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That evening we went for a yummy dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant and then out for some drinks on a patio. I ordered some type of Pale Ale and got something pretty gross. I drank it anyway and then asked the waitress what my friend was drinking as her beer was quite good. "Founders Pale Ale" she replied even though no one at the table had ordered that. I asked for one of those and she brought me the same nasty beer as before (which K was not drinking) ugh!! I'm pretty sure on the 3rd round I asked for something completely different and maybe they all taste the same but I got the same beer as the 1st and 2nd time. It was maddening but humorous all at the same time. Ahhhhh!!!

I just realized that I had not posted anything new and I'm heading to Shittsburgh.....errrr Pittsburgh this evening for a little while. I've never known anyone to take a vacation to Pittsburgh and when I mention that I am people are like "huh"? Huh indeed, though I do hear that they have a fabulous Andy Warhol Museum woot woot! J and I are going to visit the lovely K as she's going to school there. Ever since we returned from visiting her in Africa ohhhhh 4 years ago we've been saying "let's go and visit" so we finally got our shit together and we're heading out this evening! Probably not the best idea for me to be navigating at all let alone in the dark, have I mentioned I get lost EVERYWHERE that I go??? It's totally true! J is also well aware of this fact so she can't get mad at me....right Jennifer!?!!?! :)

I'm looking forward to spending some Q time with my gal pals as we always have a great time when we're together!

I'll catch up on blogs and post again when I return sometime next week!

I lounged in the sun with PP for most of Friday afternoon which of course left us both red and crispy, oops! I actually used sunscreen for once however went swimming several times and didn't reapply which obviously is a must. I would like to point out that it was waterproof but yeah I know it doesn't last alllll day so totally my fault. I will say though that is was the perfect way to spend an afternoon, not a cloud in the sky, good tunes, yummy corona and of course swimming yay! Oh and the Snowbirds were apparently on their way to a show and flew right over us so I snapped a quick photo.

I then gorged myself at Ribfest, yes Ribfest but noooo I did not consume any meat. I scarfed down a bloomin onion AND some funnel cake both of which were shared as hello that's like 3 days worth of calories right there! Nom nom nom.......

( I "borrowed" these photos from google)

Next some grocery shopping which made me realize just how nice people are and made me laugh all at the same time. You see I ran in to grab two items and therefore left my bags in the car, didn't grab a basket or a cart. Well of course I ended up with several items which I balanced nicely on top of a pizza box, some salsa, broccoli, mushrooms, dressing, fake meat, bread which was totally getting squished. Anyway the woman in front of me was like "feel free to lean those on my cart if they get heavy" I thanked her but told her that was unnecessary it really wasn't that heavy. The man in front of her took a look and then offered me his cart, again I declined as it was totally fine. A minute or so later a man in another checkout was thrusting his basket at me "please take this" which made me laugh and again I told everyone within earshot I was fine. I'm 32 not 102 I can hold a few groceries for a few minutes but they would have none of it. The woman in front of me started to back her cart out "go ahead of me" I thanked her but told her I was fine, no worries but she would have none of it and insisted. I was not going to win this one so I smiled and put my groceries on the belt. As luck would have it a new line opened up right after we switched spots and she was able to check out at the same time as me anyway, gotta love Karma!

Things that I'm into right now:

Crest Glide Cool Mint Floss

I've never been so excited to find a floss that I enjoy using. Seriously, I've always used the stuff the dentist gives me after a visit and for some reason (on more than one occasion) the floss has actually gotten stuck between my teeth. Literally stuck, like it it's dangling from my mouth and I have noooo idea what to do, pull as I might it gets lodged right in there. Not the Crest Glide super awesome floss, it tee hee glides right in and makes me want to floss!

Lipton White Tea Island Mango & Peach

Yummmm! These actually remind me of the tea bags I got at a fancy spa once, the brand is different but the bags are similar in style and just as good! The mango and peach bags are quite refreshing and I'd like to try and make iced tea with them on a nice sweltering day!

Cute skirts to wear in the summer

I adore summer as most of you know, the hot weather, cute sandals and of course super cute skirts! I came across this website recently from the UK and they have lots of different attire, it appears as though they have a gothic flair but I really like a lot of the pieces nonetheless! Please who am I kidding I love gothic shit!!!